USA Swimming today announced that Dana Bonner (Ship Bottom, N.J.), John Martin (Charlotte, N.C.), Wendy Peel (Centerville, Ohio) and Tommy Schield (Bellflower, Ill.) will join the business development division at USA Swimming headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Dana Bonner will serve as a Marketing Manager for USA Swimming. She will oversee the marketing and promotional elements of the USA Swimming Athlete Partnership Program, which is USA Swimming’s community outreach program known as swIMPACT that works with National Team athletes. Additionally, she will manage marketing programs to help USA Swimming clubs and Make a Splash local partners promote themselves. Bonner will also focus on programs like Deck Pass and SwimToday amongst others. She comes to USA Swimming from GMR, an engagement marketing agency, where she oversaw experiential marketing for the smart USA account. Bonner also has been a marketing manager and coach for a USAG club and worked with the NBA’s New Jersey Nets for four seasons on its sponsorship team. She graduated from the University of Miami School of Business in Coral Gables, Fla., with a double major in business management and marketing and double minor in finance and sports administration.
John Martin joins the USA Swimming staff as the organization’s Sports Communications Manager. He will focus on promoting key events, National Team athletes and the sport of swimming as a whole. Martin spent the last three years at USA Triathlon where he was the Communications and Media Relations Manager. While at USA Triathlon, Martin managed communications efforts for a variety of organizational programs and national events and served as a press officer for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Prior to joining USA Triathlon in 2010, Martin worked for six years at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as a member of the athletic communications staff. He was the communications lead for four consecutive NCAA College World Series appearances for the Tar Heels’ baseball team and two NCAA College Cup trips for the men’s soccer program. Martin previously held athletic communications positions at Georgia Tech and the Big East Conference.
Wendy Peel will serve as the Local Marketing Manager at USA Swimming. She will focus on helping member clubs get involved in programs like SwimToday and Deck Pass, and also grow webcasting properties at the grassroots level. Prior to her hire, Peel worked as the USA Swimming Network Content Development Manager at iHigh.com. Peel also worked at USA Triathlon as its Sport Development Coordinator. In that role, she managed the club development program while also building marketing plans to grow the sports of duathlon, winter triathlon, off-road, aquabike and aquathlon. Peel is a graduate of Cleveland State University and lives in Castle Rock, Colo., with her fiancé.
Tommy Schield will take on the newly-created position of Organizational Communications Specialist where he will work to promote USA Swimming as an organization. He will focus on communication related to promoting its programs and executive team along with actively promoting swIMPACT athlete appearances. Schield comes to USA Swimming after spending eight months in the communications department at the United States Olympic Committee. Prior to his work with the USOC, Schield was the athletic communications graduate assistant at Angelo State University and also spent time at Conference USA. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and his master’s degree from Angelo State University.
All four hires will work to enhance the overall goals of the Business Development Division at USA Swimming, which works to grow and promote the sport of swimming in the Unites States.
About USA Swimming
As the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming in the United States, USA Swimming is a 300,000-member service organization that promotes the culture of swimming by creating opportunities for swimmers and coaches of all backgrounds to participate and advance in the sport through clubs, events and education. Our membership is comprised of swimmers from the age group level to the Olympic Team, as well as coaches and volunteers. USA Swimming is responsible for selecting and training teams for international competition including the Olympic Games, and strives to serve the sport through its core objectives: Build the base, Promote the sport, Achieve competitive success. For more information, visit www.usaswimming.org.
This is an unedited press release.